


cooling off and heating up

by Engineer104



Series: Fluff(?)cember Power Hour (or Month) [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Awkwardness, F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Fluff, Non-Graphic Partial Nudity I guess!, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Swimming, nothing actually spicy happens though i'm sorry maybe another time, the Female Gaze is strong with this one (sorry not sorry)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27815296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: It's too damn hot on the march to Enbarr, so Felix decides to go for a swim.For Fluffcember Day 11: "Swimming"
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Series: Fluff(?)cember Power Hour (or Month) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035183
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	cooling off and heating up

**Author's Note:**

> you know that one classroom question Dimitri asks you after the time skip with Felix and Sylvain behind him because they're all cold weather boys who cannot deal with the heat? yeah that definitely totally inspired this incredibly dumb ficlet, so...enjoy!

The deeper into Empire territory they marched, the hotter it got. Felix had already shed his coat and cape, which left him in his thinner undercoat and a shirt sticking uncomfortably to his skin. 

He doubted he’d sweat so much in a single day in his life, and he had yet to lift a sword. How could anyone suffer this oppressive heat? 

He used to think summers in Fhirdiad were uncomfortable. but this...this was _unbearable_. And he did not envy the poor fools who wore full armor. 

He did however envy Ingrid and Sylvain a little, both flying their mounts rather than walking over sunbaked earth. 

The stream the army slowly forded looked especially inviting, its surface glistening and blue with stones parting its current into streaks of white foam. A few soldiers dawdled, wading away from the column or crouching at the banks to splash water over sunburnt faces, and Felix was awfully tempted to follow suit. 

And what did he have to lose anyway? His dignity? He doubted he looked anymore _dignified_ with sweat plastering his hair to his face. And he’d spent many a summer afternoon in a cold creek with Glenn splashing him, taunting him that he’d never learn to swim if he lingered on the bank. 

It cost nothing...but Felix still retreated a ways downstream, preferring a modicum of privacy. 

In the shade of a few trees it wasn’t much cooler, so he wasted no time unbuckling his sword belt and pauldron and tugging off his boots before shrugging out of his undercoat and unlacing his shirt. He deliberated over his trousers for a heartbeat before deciding to do away with those too. 

He left on his underclothes. He wasn’t an _animal_ , and this would only be a quick dunk. 

The water, contrasting with the air, was cold. Blessedly cold, so cold he couldn’t help flinching when he stepped in to his ankles, watching his bare feet pale against the stone riverbed with the current sweeping around him. So cold he almost decided this was enough, he could reemerge and dress and rejoin the army and suffer the rest of the day’s heat. 

He waded in deeper, until water soaked into his shorts and lapped at his waist, ripples spreading out away from him before merging with the current. He cupped some water into his hands and splashed it over his face, shivering as drops trickled down his back. 

It was perfect. 

And then Felix took a breath and dunked his head. 

It wasn’t uncomfortable anymore, and the feeling of fresh, cool water washing sweat from his skin relaxed him. It was almost like bliss despite the pins numbing his fingertips and toes, something clean and almost _holy_ in the midst of the ugliness of war. 

It felt almost like listening to—

He burst from the surface when his lungs started to burn, coughing water from his nose and with his bangs dripping into his face. He slicked them back and turned towards the riverbank, his mission accomplished. 

And froze as a voice drifted towards him, as if carried by the current. 

“Felix!” Annette called, still hidden somewhere beyond the trees, between him and the rest of the army. “Where did you go? Ashe said you wandered off, so I wanted to check on—oh! You took off your sword and your...clothes...all of—” She emerged into view at the same instant as she cut herself off, her eyes landing on him and shooting wide. 

Her cheeks turned a fiery red before she snapped, “Why are you n—undressed?”

Felix, for some reason, felt his own face warm, as if he had any reason to be ashamed or embarrassed. “I’m still wearing my—”

“Well!” Annette said, far too loudly. She spun around and crossed her arms. “I’m not looking, so you can come out now!”

“I’m not... _naked_ , Annette,” Felix retorted, but he doubted she cared. 

It was _improper_ , he supposed, even if he cared less about propriety than she did, and he had sought privacy before essentially stripping. 

“Close enough!” she said. “What possessed you to just go...swimming?”

A sigh escaped him, only for a shiver to seize him. He waded back to the bank, water faintly splashing as he stepped out and reached for his trousers piled on top of his other clothes. “The heat,” he said simply. 

“It is a little hot,” Annette conceded. Her head turned very slightly only to jerk back around and away very...obviously. 

He frowned at her, not that she could see. “Only a little?” He snorted as he started dressing. 

And of course his clothes now clung uncomfortably to his skin _anyway_.

“Well, maybe more than a little,” Annette said, “but not enough that I’d want to strip naked and go for a swim in front of the entire army.”

Felix rolled his eyes and tugged on his shirt. “I moved away,” he said. “It’s not my fault you followed. And this was the professor’s idea.”

“The professor has strange ideas sometimes!” she said. 

He didn’t bother contradicting her - not when it was true - and only focused on lacing his shirt and perching on a rock to tug his boots back on. 

“Felix?” Annette said when the silence dragged for too long. 

“Hm?”

She turned around, her gaze scanning him before drifting away. Pink still stained her face, but with how fair she was, it was probably just sunburn. 

Dimly he wondered if the sun had scattered more freckles across her cheeks, or if he was imagining things. 

She approached him then and shrugged off her shawl, and before he could ask what she was doing she draped it over his head. 

“What are you—” He broke off when she rubbed his head - drying his hair - with the shawl. 

“You could’ve at least brought a towel with you or something,” she chided him in a low voice that filled his chest with warmth. “You wanted to cool off, not freeze, right?”

“I’ll dry quickly in the sun,” he reassured her. He stiffened when she cupped either side of his face, fabric the only thing separating her hands - her _touch_ \- from his skin. 

Annette definitely had more freckles than when they set out. 

**Author's Note:**

> RIP Felix, Annette will teach him shame


End file.
